Carbon dioxide has a large number of uses. For example, carbon dioxide is used to carbonate beverages, to chill, freeze and package seafood, meat, poultry, baked goods, fruits and vegetables, and to extend the shelf-life of dairy products. It is an important environmental component in industrial waste and process water treatment as a replacement for sulfuric acid to control pH levels. Other uses included drinking water treatment, an environmentally-friendly pesticide and an atmosphere additive in greenhouses to improve the growth of vegetables.
Generally carbon dioxide is produced by purifying a waste stream which is a by-product of an organic or inorganic chemical process. The waste stream comprises carbon dioxide and water soluble contaminants from the chemical process, and the carbon dioxide must be cleaned of these contaminants prior to recovery. The cleaning results in the loss of some of the carbon dioxide.
As the demand for carbon dioxide continues to increase, more effective and efficient carbon dioxide cleaning systems are desirable in order to cost effectively improve the recovery of the carbon dioxide.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide a system which can effectively process a crude carbon dioxide feed stream which contains water soluble contaminants in a more efficient manner than that possible with conventional carbon dioxide processing systems thereby improving the recovery of the carbon dioxide.